Seizure of other people's property in case of theft committed using electronic means of payment: features of qualification

The subject of the study is the specifics of the seizure of other people's property in the context of using electronic money and the qualification of those acts provided for in paragraph "d", part 3 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter – the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The use of electronic means of payment (hereinafter referred to as ESP) in the process of committing theft actualizes the research presented by us, which is confirmed by the intensity of publication of works on similar topics. Meanwhile, the ineffectiveness of criminal law measures to protect property indicates the insufficient elaboration of the issues outlined by the author, which allows us to conclude that there is a high research potential for expanding the criteria for "seizure" of other people's property in the qualification of theft using ESP. The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the "seizure" of other people's property when committing thefts using ESP, which make it possible to develop scientifically sound recommendations for the qualification of this type of crime. The research methodology includes both general scientific and private scientific methods of cognition, including legal analysis of legislation and judicial practice, a logical approach for forming hypotheses and concepts, as well as a systematic approach for considering "withdrawal" in the context of the general theory of criminal law. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the substantiation of the concept of legal seizure of property in case of theft using ESP. The improved approach makes it possible to expand the traditional understanding of seizure based on the physical movement of property. Thus, when qualifying theft using an ESP, the seizure of someone else's property should be understood as the illegal interception of the powers of the owner of the property as a result of obtaining unauthorized access to the ESP. The author came to the following conclusions: the concept of legal seizure of property takes into account the specifics of the theft using ESP, namely electronic money without physical expression. In such cases, the seizure of property occurs by obtaining illegal access to the ESP; the justification of the stated concept is of great practical importance, since it allows to qualify thefts using the ESP as completed crimes from the moment of obtaining unauthorized access to the ESP, even if the actual disposal of property has not yet occurred, which will increase the protection of property of citizens and organizations from new types of theft in the field of electronic payments.

crime, property, embezzlement, theft, seizure, electronic means of payment, item of theft, non-cash funds, Bank account, qualification features